Advocate for marijuana shops baffled by moratoriums

Tuesday

May 23, 2017 at 6:35 PMMay 24, 2017 at 4:58 PM

By Brian Lee/Telegram & Gazette Staff

A spokesman for the triumphant campaign to legalize adult-use marijuana said he doesn't understand why communities have enacted moratoriums on pot stores, in light of the state Legislature's efforts to delay the retail portion of the proposal until at least the summer of 2018.

In December, Gov. Charles D. Baker Jr. signed a bill to delay the opening of marijuana shops in Massachusetts until mid-2018, to prepare for the new industry.

Jim Borghesani of the Yes on 4 campaign said he considers the moratoriums redundant.

"I've seen a lot of moratoriums that expire in July of 2018," Borghesani said. "Legal sales won’t even begin until July 2018 at the earliest. So I don’t quite understand the function of those moratoriums.

"But if local officials think that they need more time, and the moratorium gives them more time, then so be it. But I would urge all local officials to actually read the initiative. They’ll find out that there really isn’t any great mystery. We don’t have to wait for the Legislature to come out with any zoning recommendations; they’re already in the initiative. They give local authorities the ability to determine where facilities are located when they can operate and the manner of business. They have substantial local control."

In the meantime, Borghesani said, a lot of entrepreneurs from Massachusetts and other states want to move forward in the Bay State.

"We’ve been hearing from folks across the country who are looking at various markets, looking at new states, including California, Maine, Nevada and Massachusetts, and questioning why Massachusetts is going to take so much longer than the other states," he said. "We’ve had to tell them that only in Massachusetts has the Legislature decided to delay retail sales. Nevada sales are going to begin very soon. They’re moving up their timetable."

Numerous Central Massachusetts communities have put in place or are considering moratoriums on marijuana stores.

In the meantime, the Central Massachusetts Regional Planning Commission is coordinating assistance to its communities, and a dialogue with other regional planning agencies around the state, trying to get the most up-to-date information and a full breadth of knowledge of what’s going on at the state level, said Christopher J. Ryan, community development manager for CMRPC.

"We have told our communities that we really haven’t developed our own individualized model bylaw for a moratorium," he said.

"But we have let them know the other communities that already have passed moratoria and have had success at the (attorney general) level. There’s the Westborough model" of its Town Meeting voting to eliminate the commercial potential for recreational marijuana retail sales, Ryan said. Westborough was the first town in the state to ban pot stores.

Southborough also voted at its Town Meeting to ban recreational marijuana stores.

Also Monday night, the Webster Planning Board was expected to launch a discussion about a possible moratorium.

Webster Planning Board member Thomas Klebart said he attended a CMRPC meeting, and he intends to pass out materials CMRPC provided about recreational marijuana.

The majority of Webster residents who voted in the November statewide general election voted in favor of the initiative to legalize marijuana.

Klebart said he is open-minded about the potential for marijuana stores in Webster.

"You may be in favor of recreational marijuana, but may not want it sold in your town," Klebart said. "That’s one of the things I want to discuss."

On June 13, Southbridge has a ballot question that will ask if voters support marijuana product manufacturers, testing facilities, cultivators and retailers coming to town. In the meantime, Southbridge's Planning Board will investigate whether a moratorium is worth putting on, while the town's Board of Health will "sit on it" until the June 13 election, Health Director Andrew R. Pelletier said. The outcome of the vote will drive the town's response, Pelletier said.

The health director expressed "significant concerns" about marijuana stores, but at the same time, noted marijuana stores could allay other concerns he has.

Marijuana cafés, Pelletier said, are his chief concern.

"I know I can go out and have a beer and safely drive a car," he suggested. "I do not know what one joint will do to somebody, or one Gummy Bear will do to somebody.

"When we’re talking marijuana," he continued. "Is a little bit stoned as stoned as a lot stoned? I don’t know how else to put that. I don’t know how impaired a person is going to be if they have a little bit of marijuana."

Second, Pelletier said he was concerned about controlling youth access to retail stores. He envisioned youngsters fishing through the garbage of pot stores.

"There’s going to be waste from these places," he said. "Is that going in the dumpster, where we’re going to have kids diving in dumpsters for remnants?"

On the other hand, he said he was somewhat keen on the idea of licensed grow facilities in that they can ensure a "pure" product, without harmful additives such as fentanyl.

But that doesn't necessarily mean he wants a facility in town, he said.

Pelletier was asked about the stigma of potentially being one of the towns that elect to allow marijuana stores, while other surrounding communities might not.

"I’m hesitant to answer this until we see what Southbridge actually chooses to do" on June 13, he said.

"Any town, not just Southbridge, that votes to have it, where all the towns around them vote not to, is going to be that 'black hole,' where, 'Oh my God, they went in this direction,' " he said. "They went to 'the dark side.'

"Having said that, I’m not averse to the town saying yes if we can control it," he said. "It’s something we have to recognize as legal, and I think it’s up to us to determine how to regulate it within the town. If it does become legal in this town, I think the onus is on the town government to make sure that we can bring this in safely and legally, working with the state Department of Public Health."

A spokesman for Worcester City Manager Edward M. Augustus Jr. said the city had not passed a moratorium. He said the city has advocated through both written and oral testimony for "legislative fixes" to the law as written and made recommendations for what the regulations should look like.

Fitchburg's principal planner, Michael O'Hara, said the city's Planning Board has had discussions about a moratorium, but hadn't authorized one. O'Hara said he had not heard directly from existing businesses about whether they were concerned about the potential for recreational marijuana stores.